Murafa was survived by his wife, Polina Murafa, and an infant daughter, Silvia. The murders, it was later noted, were part of a violent backlash that marked a definitive split between Bessarabian activists and the far left. Halippa, who narrowly missed attending Hodorogea's picnic, calls this a time of "full-blown anarchy". Clark additionally notes that this killing of two "most conspicuous Moldavian leaders" was linked with the devastation of farms and businesses by peasants and Russian deserters, but also with a Bolshevik "campaign of terrorism". Murafa and Hodorogea's death occurred just days after Mateevici's death from typhus, which led the public to associate the three men and commemorated them together. Following the December 1917 establishment of a breakaway Moldavian Democratic Republic, which eventually united with Romania, Murafa was openly designated a hero to the cause of unionism. In May 1918, before its complete merger with Romania, the Republic set aside 5,000 rubles for a monument to be dedicated at Murafa's grave, a further 3,000 as aid for his widow, and a 900-ruble pension for his daughter. The issue was hotly debated between the PNM and the left-leaning Peasants' Faction, but passed with a slim majority of votes. In 1922, following Halippa's pleas, the Romanian authorities commissioned a statue to honor all three activists. As a result, the Murafa—Mateevici—Hodorogea Monument, a stone-and-bronze work by Vasile Ionescu-Varo, was erected in Chișinău. Bessarabian activists of that period introduced Murafa as the original "martyr of the nation". The term was notably used by Pelivan, and also on the monument's dedication. Murafa's legacy was again challenged by the Soviet Union's 1940 occupation of Bessarabia: the monument was taken down and evicted to Romania; it is presumed lost. Following Bessarabia's 1991 emancipation as the independent state of Moldova, a commemorative plaque was unveiled on the same spot. According to 2013 reports, a replica of the original monument was to be erected there, on the initiative of politician Dumitru Godoroja (one of Hodorogea's descendants). The project was halted when it met opposition from Moldova's Party of Communists. Notes References Ștefan Ciobanu, Cultura românească în Basarabia sub stăpânirea rusă, Editura Asociației Uniunea Culturală Bisericească, Chișinău, 1923 Ion Constantin, Ion Negrei, Gheorghe Negru, Ioan Pelivan: părinte al mișcării naționale din Basarabia, Editura Biblioteca Bucureștilor, Bucharest, 2011. Charles Upson Clark, Bessarabia: Russia and Roumania on the Black Sea, Dodd, Mead and Company, New York City, 1927 Onisifor Ghibu, "Cum s'a